WordPress Images - A Quick Tutorial
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David
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September 6th, 2012
Think that all it takes to have a successful blog is a hosting site, a clever name and some writing skills? Well, you do need those things, but you also need to know how to not only source images for your blog, but also how to properly upload and display them, or you’re going to turn off your readers before your blog has even fully loaded. Here are a few quick tips on images:
Sourcing
Take your own photos. The quickest and easiest way to get pictures to use on your blog is to take them yourself. You won’t have to worry about copyright issues or having to pay to use them, since they (obviously) belong to you. Worried about your camera skills? Don’t be. Most modern digital cameras include image stabilization, so you won’t end up with a bunch of blurry pictures. Just keep in mind that natural light is best, and that the lower the megapixels on your camera, the smaller the image needs to be.
Online web catalogs. You can’t just go to Flickr and “borrow” other people's pictures. If you see one that you just absolutely have to use, you first
have to contact the person who owns it to ask their permission or risk being sued. That said, there are a number of online sites that allow you to purchase photos for your own use. Getty Images, Pro-Files and Newscom are several of them, although Newscom also has a section of free images that can used as long as proper attribution is given.
Contact the company. If you’re writing about a product, hunt down the PR info for it. This is usually on the company’s website. Send them a quick email asking for images. Often, you’ll receive several hi-res professionally shot images that are free for you to use. This may take a few days, however, so only use this approach if your post isn’t urgent.
Hosting
Use your blogging platform. Most blog hosting sites (WordPress and Blogger come to mind) give you a set amount of space for uploading images. Once you upload the picture, it stays in your online “album” space, so you can use it again on multiple posts without having to re-upload it, which is nice. Images that are hosted by your blog space tend to load pretty quickly, making your readers happy.
Use a cloud-hosting service. There are several image hosting sites available for holding and maintaining your blog images. Some cost money, like Amazon S3, which bases its prices on the size, amount of views and number of pictures, while others, like Flickr and Photobucket are mostly free, but place upload size restrictions on your account. The best thing to do is start off small and expand your storage when needed.
As you can see, there are many different things to consider when sourcing and uploading pictures for your blog. It’s best to experiment first and see what works, before spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a year on photos.